Home health nurses play an extremely important role in caring for individuals who need extra care at home. One major role that they can play is helping to educate caregivers and keep patients out of the hospital. The relationship between home health nurses and caregivers is extremely important.

Do you struggle with your head to toe assessments? There is so much to remember and you want to feel competent around your patients. Here is a great overview of the body systems and what you should be paying attention to in your assessment.

Have you ever thought about doing critical care nursing? Or wondered what it is actually like? There's definitely a big difference between the television drama version and the real life hospital version. On the television, the ICU is full of doctors constantly coding patients and then the patients thanking them as soon as their heartbeat comes back. Is this what the ICU is really like?

Does DKA have a confusing pathophysiology? Why does the potassium rise initially? How does insulin help to resolve DKA? Why do these patients breathe so fast? If you've wondered about these questions, look at this article to see if it helps clear up some of the confusion!

Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is the "flesh-eating" bacteria that you sometimes hear about in the news. How do people contract this horrible and sometimes fatal infection? Is it just pure, bad luck? How many patients die every year from this infection? Check out this quick explanation from an ICU RN.

Take a few minutes to read the story of Eva Grace who was born with a terminal condition called anencephaly. Her parents had a plan for her birth and organ donation, but things never seem to quite go as planned.

I remember when I started as a new nurse feeling very intimidated by tracheostomies (or as most people call them - trachs, sounds like trakes). I was terrified that it was going to fall out or that I was going to injure the patient while managing it. I've since worked with them for six years in the ICU and feel very comfortable with them now. Hopefully this helps you to be at ease that trachs are not bad to manage!

Both as a nurse and as a mother, I have experienced what labor & delivery and post partum nurses do to care for their patients. It is such a vulnerable time for new mothers and the support that nurses give is never forgotten.

I worked as a night shift nurse for six years. Figuring out how to stay healthy while switching back and forth from days to nights was very important. Here are a few helpful tips to keep you feeling good while working the night shift.